According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were at least 662 data breaches in 2010, which exposed more than 16 million records. Nearly two-thirds of breaches exposed Social Security numbers, and 26% involved credit or debit card data. The ITRC elaborated, “Other than breaches reported by the media and a few progressive state websites,…
Recently, I worked with a Fox News reporter in Boston on a story about home burglaries and home security systems. The victim in our story states “I see the big smashed in window, glass everywhere,” says David Barstow of Methuen. While his family was gone for only a couple of hours, a group of teens…
Tracking users is all the rage. A battle is being waged over our data, and there are several parties involved in this fight. We voluntarily offer our data to various companies, only to discover that they are using it in ways that we never anticipated. Smartphones have become almost an extension of ourselves. They are…
I’m weird. I know this because people tell me all the time. They tell me I’m weird because I like to do things that most people don’t. I like to do things that are different, and different usually means weird. One of my little weird things is posing as a woman. Yup. Read on. I…
The WayneIndependent reports that due to a higher degree of burglaries that citizens should be proactive and protect their properties. Here is an abridged version of their safety tips with my spin: Walking in on a burglary? DO NOT ENTER — a trapped burglar is dangerous. DON’T try to capture him yourself. Call the police…
Occasionally, I’m chided by naysayers who accuse of promoting the FUD: fear uncertainty and doubt. They rattle off statistics that point to the chances of something bad happening is slim and one should not be concerned about such issues. They are right, the stats are correct, and they are wrong, you should be concerned, but…
The wild, wild web is the most exciting, alluring, and all-around awesome thing available to us today. It’s also something we have come to rely on to a fault. And that’s a little scary. The Internet is a decentralized wilderness, used by billions of devices worldwide. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental…
More than 20 million Americans have multiple Social Security numbers (SSNs) associated with their name in commercial records according to a new study announced in December from ID Analytics, Inc. The study found that rather than serving as a unique identifier, more than 40 million SSNs are associated with multiple people. 6.1 percent of Americans have…
We currently rely on easily counterfeited identification, and we transmit credit card applications using the phone, fax, Internet, or snail mail, all of which are relatively anonymous methods. Fraudulent credit card applications are the most lucrative form of credit card fraud. Identity thieves love credit cards because they are the easiest accounts to open, and…
We lose stuff. You put something down, you get distracted, you forget about it and it’s gone. Stuff falls out of pockets and bags all the time. I’m one of those people that’s so smart, I’m stupid and absent minded when it comes to my stuff. Where’s my wallet, where my keys, where’s my phone?…
